The new Obsessions are better
When about seven members of The Obsessions, who were really fundamental to the group, left mid last year, the doomsayers were quick to bury the Obsessions.
By Joseph Batte
When about seven members of The Obsessions, who were really fundamental to the group, left mid last year, the doomsayers were quick to bury the Obsessions.
However Ronnie Mulindwa and the five girls — Sharon, Cleopatra, Helen, Brenda and Jackie— decided if it meant dying, they would go down fighting. They hooked up with songwriter Silver Kyagulanyi who repackaged them as a singing group.
He took them through the rigours of vocal training and penned a number of songs for them. At the end of last year they released, Weekuume, a tasty tune, which they followed up with a sizzling video. Weekume instantly became a blockbuster.
In a musical sense, if you compare the girls with boys who left, the new Obsessions are much better than the old ones. The boys were good at dancing, but very poor at singing while the girls are good at both.
While the old Obsessions boys came across as pretentious dudes with lousy voices, who mostly lived off the stench of western pop music via songs like ‘Nod Your Head Like This, the girls’ singing is natural and devoid of the irritating vocal gymnastics associated with western singing. This singing not only makes the boys look like amateurs, but also threatens to turn Wekuume into one of the finest albums this year.
With the help of producers Steve Jean and Travis Kazibwe, the girls progressed into incorporating different styles like, reggae, R n’B and Afro pop but with less frenzied tempos into their music.
The message and heartache in Tayagalika makes you hang onto every word. It echoes Ronnie Mulindwa’s heartache when his colleagues abandoned him. The moral in Tayagalika’s common-sense lyrics is: love many, but trust a few.
Break the album down even further and you will find more tracks with good lyrical content, solid melodies and undeniable appeal like Obulamu, Simanyi, Jukira and Jangu.
The girls combine their dynamic stage persona, with attitude, tightly choreographed dance routines and sexy looks.
Last weekend at the National Theater, they showed the audience what dancing (and acting) was all about.
They put up such a sizzling performance, at one point dancing with easy grace on frighteningly high-heeled boots, to rousing applause from the audience.
Are the new Obsessions better than the old Obsessions? Of course they are. And, after watching this showcase of some of Uganda finest talent at National Theater last weekend only one thing can be said. Look out world, here come the new Obsessions.
When about seven members of The Obsessions, who were really fundamental to the group, left mid last year, the doomsayers were quick to bury the Obsessions.
However Ronnie Mulindwa and the five girls — Sharon, Cleopatra, Helen, Brenda and Jackie— decided if it meant dying, they would go down fighting. They hooked up with songwriter Silver Kyagulanyi who repackaged them as a singing group.
He took them through the rigours of vocal training and penned a number of songs for them. At the end of last year they released, Weekuume, a tasty tune, which they followed up with a sizzling video. Weekume instantly became a blockbuster.
In a musical sense, if you compare the girls with boys who left, the new Obsessions are much better than the old ones. The boys were good at dancing, but very poor at singing while the girls are good at both.
While the old Obsessions boys came across as pretentious dudes with lousy voices, who mostly lived off the stench of western pop music via songs like ‘Nod Your Head Like This, the girls’ singing is natural and devoid of the irritating vocal gymnastics associated with western singing. This singing not only makes the boys look like amateurs, but also threatens to turn Wekuume into one of the finest albums this year.
With the help of producers Steve Jean and Travis Kazibwe, the girls progressed into incorporating different styles like, reggae, R n’B and Afro pop but with less frenzied tempos into their music.
The message and heartache in Tayagalika makes you hang onto every word. It echoes Ronnie Mulindwa’s heartache when his colleagues abandoned him. The moral in Tayagalika’s common-sense lyrics is: love many, but trust a few.
Break the album down even further and you will find more tracks with good lyrical content, solid melodies and undeniable appeal like Obulamu, Simanyi, Jukira and Jangu.
The girls combine their dynamic stage persona, with attitude, tightly choreographed dance routines and sexy looks.
Last weekend at the National Theater, they showed the audience what dancing (and acting) was all about.
They put up such a sizzling performance, at one point dancing with easy grace on frighteningly high-heeled boots, to rousing applause from the audience.
Are the new Obsessions better than the old Obsessions? Of course they are. And, after watching this showcase of some of Uganda finest talent at National Theater last weekend only one thing can be said. Look out world, here come the new Obsessions.